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Strogg
The Strogg are a hostile cybernetic alien race featured as the main antagonists in the Quake 2 and Quake 4 video games, and recently in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The Strogg are cybernetic constructs of unclear origins that reproduce by taking biological components and fusing them with advanced technology in the brutal surgical process of stroggification that enslaves their minds and enhances their bodies for war. The Strogg also require protein from dead flesh to create a substance known as stroyent, which is vital to them for nourishment and the lubrication of their vast and high tech military-industrial complex. They maintain this system on their homeworld, Stroggos, which is heavily defended with various security installations and fully fledged to launch assaults on other worlds. The Strogg's need to harvest biological components for their own augmentation, and the flesh of slain enemies for the creation of stroyent, is their primary motivation, since it is necessary for their survival. It is this motivation that led the Strogg to Earth, which they promptly staged a massive invasion on almost immediately upon discovery. This Strogg aggression led to humanity's long war with them that has continued unabated ever since. The Strogg are recognisable mainly as humanoid figures of decaying flesh with machinery and armour fused onto their bodies, (even the oldest technology found on Stroggos is ergonomic and anthropometric hinting their original bodies were not unlike our own). Humanoid Strogg are also recognisable by their orange eyes, caused by the microcellular Strogg nanite technology therein. They come in various different shapes and sizes but the average Strogg is much stronger physically than a human and can easily kill. The most powerful Strogg entity is called the Makron, and functions as the supreme leader among them. Background Possible origins There are various theories about the Strogg's origins. Some have said that the Strogg are the remnant of a massive war long ago, a military structure that was left without purpose but continued to carry out its mission to conquer even when the original war had ended and their own original allies and enemies had died out. Other theories include that the Strogg were once a prosperous civilisation, perhaps not so different from humans, and their world may have once been like Earth. However, their practice of cybernetic augmentation to keep themselves alive, as well as mutation and nanotechnology, may have changed them, and over time their forms were altered so much that there is nothing left of the original "Strogg" species or any concrete evidence it even existed. All that remains in the Strogg is the steel and merciless will to conquer, perhaps some echo of their ambitions long ago before they were twisted beyond recognition. There is no existing evidence of the Strogg ever being independent, creative and thinking beings, as their activity seems to be co-ordinated by various control nodes, devices, the neurocytes within their brains and of course the Nexus itself. However, for them to have achieved their state as cybernetic beings would have required creative minds, however long dead by now, a long time ago in their past. It is possible that the Strogg were assembled as a highly adaptive army to protect some other species, but they may have become so advanced that they disregarded their own masters and became resource-hungry in their pursuit of the one item their existence requires- biological components from other (preferably humanoid) species. This desire for biological components led the Strogg to Earth which, according to one marine "from it they could get at dozens of other civilisations"- albeit that it doesn't tie in with Earth's relatively null space travel capabilities compared with the Strogg when the invasion first began. Some evidence of strogg history and past culture exist in one notable part of stroggos. Thist is the palace which may be one of the oldest structures, considering it is one of the only buildings that reveals signs of the strogg culture, beleifs, and origins. Several of these signs include the red carpet, the quake 2 signs, the inscriptions found on the walls throughout the facility and the image a powerful character who may have once been a very important peice of strogg history before they became completely mindless and monotone. This is shown by several of the newer structures on stroggos that reveal no signs of strogg culture or care for it. One theory is that the nexus was one of the things that led to the stroggs mindlessness although they probobly weren't very peaceful in the firstplace, considering what they did to the inhabitence of stroggos. One theory about the possible origin of the strogg is that they were once part of the armies from quake 1 until they rebelled, broke away, and left in slipgates that led them to the planet they currently inhabit. This also make sence because it shows how they would need to find more lifeforms to use considering they used up all the resorces of stroggos, accept for a few mutated ones that they now use for defense. These aspects can also be noted in the into to Enemy Territory Quake Wars, where it says the strogg are souless fusions of decaying flesh and matter searching the galaxy for new resources to harvest. One thing going against that theory is that the palace could also be a sign that the strogg were once just like earth until they became completely dependent on technology and the creation of weapons and cyber-biological technology. A lot can be told from Matthew Kane's words about the Strogg: "created for war, and fuelled by the blood of their enemy". This supports the aforementioned idea that the Strogg are supersoldiers left from a major war long ago, since their reliance on enemy bodies as their resource effectively means that the enemy's dead are their source of power. This being said, it means that the Strogg literally feed on death itself, and war is their only source of nourishment. In the eyes of whosoever created the Strogg this may have seemed advantageous because the Strogg would not require any resource other than the dead of the enemy- so they would fight out of their own thirst for blood. A marine aboard the Hannibal during the Second Stroggos Invasion said that someone had told him the Strogg are the "next step in human evolution" saying when you think how much humans rely on technology, this is not so far from being right. This supports the possibility the Strogg may be a very similar or parallel version of Earth, judging by their humanoid forms and their engineering methods (even down to the use of screws, bolts and modular floor tiles/metal panels/bricks) being so similar to Earth, but their future was much darker than we would like. All Strogg technology is ergonomic and anthropometric (built with surveyed human body size and positions in mind that shows extensive knowledge of human body measurements, strengths, requirements and limits) - seats, doors, handles, control panels, computers, weaponry, crates, fencing, railings, trams, corridors, stairs, lifts. All environments on Stroggos are perfect for human interaction. The war against the Strogg The Strogg invaded Earth in the mid-21st Century in search of biological components. Though at first they gained the advantage the humans rallied and defeated them in a long and bloodthirst conflict. The humans then invaded Stroggos and the Strogg were forced to defend their homeworld. A lone marine destroyed their main planetary defence system, the "Big Gun", and killed their leader, an entity known as the Makron. However, they were resilient and regrouped, constructing an new and more powerful Makron. After this, the humans learned of the Nexus, a system that co-ordinated the Strogg Communication Network. After a series of daring operations they destroyed it, crippling the Strogg's tactical and strategic chances of victory because this disorganised them, though they still possessed an army billions strong and continued to fight the humans. In the second human invasion the Strogg also lost many facilities essential to their existence, chiefly the Strogg Medical Facilities where they renewed their ranks with Tactical Transfers, a particularly smart and elite unit, and the facilities that they used for creating stroyent, which is essential for lubricating and fueling them. The stroyent's pumping system, a massive heart, was also lost to the humans' hostile infiltration of their industrial complex. To make matters worse for the Strogg, their reconstructed Makron was killed by a rogue transfer named Matthew Kane along with the Nexus. Whether or not these operations have finally destroyed the Strogg war machine for good remains to be seen. One thing is certain: mankind's survival depends on the Strogg's defeat. Homeworld Main article: Stroggos The Strogg homeworld is host to a vast military and industrial complex with its capital city based at Cerberon, which is the heart of Stroggos civilisation, built into a massive crater called Crater Majoris. The Strogg have mostly stripped the planet of its resources and there is little that remains of the original ecosystem that creatures like themselves would have needed to evolve. However, there is still a small amount of animal life on Stroggos that has undergone horrific mutation and these once-docile creatures will attack without provocation. The entire planet is a desert wasteland covered in various military and industrial facilities. Life processes Harvesting The Strogg process of gathering the dead remains of their enemies is known as harvesting. This is the principle way in which the Strogg gather the resources that are their primary source of strength. Though the Strogg possess mechanized walkers called harvesters specially made for harvesting, they also manage without them: Strogg are known to drag the corpses of the dead enemy away, which is part of their harvesting function, so that they can either take organs for building more Strogg or so that they can break the body down into stroyent. Harvesters themselves are powerful weapons, capable of taking on large numbers of enemies, and are virtually indestructible by most infantry weapons because of their specific anti-personnel purpose. Human infantry are taught not to attract the touch of a harvester at any cost, as such machines should only be faced by vehicles equipped with advanced anti-armour weaponry, such as mechanized walkers or hover tanks. Stroggification The Strogg procreate only by using the various technologies at their disposal. They are known to assemble new soldiers using the remains of their fallen enemies, with the irretrievable bodies being processed into stroyent. Their is also evidence of shared genetic material among the Strogg, for example the Gunner and Berserker have similar heads, meaning these units may have been developed in a genetic project to create supersoldiers. The Strogg practice of assembling new soldiers using the parts of their enemies and their own technology is known as stroggification. Infamously, stroggification is also practiced on live enemy prisoners of war in order to produce the Tactical Transfer, at the Strogg Medical Facilities. Natural limbs are removed and replaced with more efficient mechanical legs and arms that are much stronger. The subject has nanites introduced into them in the cybernetic augmentation process, and finally a neurocyte is implanted in the brain to link them to the Strogg Communication Network so that they can receive instant command directives and experience the aggressive Strogg thought processes. Nanites The Strogg have microscopic technology swimming around inside them known as nanites. These are microscopic nano-robots that repair damaged tissue and keep the technology attached to their bodies functioning. Nanites have some extraordinary properties. They have been known to regenerate the tissue of pieces of Strogg, for example arms, even after being severed from the body, possibly so that it can be harvested intact and recycled. This was only able to be properly studied when humans invaded the Strogg homeworld and were able to bring proper scientific equipment with them. In addition, nanites may be capable of inflicting harm on their enemies on a microcellular level and are airborne all across Stroggos, which prompted human paranoia of them and they therefore used a decontamination procedure for any marine returning to his base. The decontamination cycle could easily purge nanites with a procedure that used various chemicals. Matthew Kane, a rogue transfer that the humans intended to use as a secret weapon, was not decontaminated when he returned to the USS Hannibal, possibly because being a Strogg meant that he would automatically infect his surroundings with nanites and that doing so will kill the nanites inside him possibly killing him in the process. Death and recycling When the Strogg die, their bodies do not rot away like most organisms. Their cells undergo a sudden process induced by the nanites within them that dissolves them, and they are quickly vaporized in a sickly green glow. Presumably the nanites quickly disassemble the body once it is dead, and the particles dissipate into Stroggos' environment. After this, the particles may be collected in various Strogg facilities and recycled into stroyent production. As a result, dead Strogg will always typically be recycled and used to feed their war machine even more. However, some Strogg bodies have been recovered that failed to undergo this process, and instead the nanites continued to repair their bodies even after they were dead and the process was futile. Surprisingly Harvesters do this despite being visibly made mostly of metal, perhaps because there is organic matter inside them and nanites. Robotic Strogg hardware does not do this, however, suggesting it is a cellular process. The decomposition phase is a relatively new Strogg technology that was only observed in the course of mankind's Second Invasion. In the previous invasion, Bitterman witnessed no such phase, as Strogg corpses simply lay there with flies buzzing around them. An explanation could be that the Nexus was not yet brought on-line, since intel points to that technology being the cause of the Strogg decomposition phase. The neurocyte The neurocyte is a small but vital neural implant inside the cerebral cortex of any Strogg. It is an archive of data an neural link to the Strogg Communication Network. The neurocyte contains the associated tactical program for a particular unit, which is why the Strogg require no training for combat, since it means they already possess the skills via the neurocyte. It gives the subject the ability to understand the Strogg language and get through the security lock-outs on Strogg control panels that normally block out non-Strogg users. The neurocyte also has other effects on the Strogg. A neurocyte does not inhibit emotion but rather redirects it and amplifies it: the Strogg gain joy from the death of their enemies and show extraordinary excitement, often laughing, in battle. In fact, the neurocyte likely directs their aggression so effectively it makes them disregard their own safety in favour of killing the enemy. Many a Strogg footsoldier has charged into human security barriers and gunfire, or stood in front of a travelling combat vehicle without concern about being crushed. The neurocyte possibly induces such aggression and a desire to kill the enemy, manifesting as utter contempt, that Strogg readily sacrifice themselves to kill the enemy since their components would be recycled to build more Strogg anyway. The Makron possessed an arrogant character, laughing grotesquely at its enemies in combat and shouting "you cannot win!" or contemptuously saying "die, human!" showing that it was capable of the emotions of joy and hate, as most likely regulated by the neurocyte or the Strogg Communication Network's influence thereon. It is implanted using a large hypodermic needle, driving it directly into the brain of a fully conscious subject at the last stage of stroggification. In human terms the damage to the cerebral cortex during implantation would likely kill a subject but Strogg technology (most likely nanites) has proven otherwise. It then requires subsequent activation of the program to enslave the subject's brain. Far ahead of human medical knowledge, the neurocyte cannot be removed by any forms of surgery, so deeply is it wired in. Stroyent The most important substance to the Strogg is stroyent. It is a viscous green slime which contains large amounts of protein and other nutrients that the Strogg require, which is processed from the corpses of their victims and former allies. In addition stroyent is used by the Strogg as a kind of renewable biofuel instead of oil. Stroyent health stations are what appears to be a removed stomach found attached to a device that dispenses stroyent to Strogg requiring medical assistance. Stroyent seems to be produced using various bio-engineered systems, integrally something called a "stroyent processing creature" as well as a giant organ much like a massive heart that pumps the stroyent through a series of tunnels and pipelines running across Stroggos. This is part of a biological factory the Strogg maintain for creating stroyent. It is likely this is the central system for stroyent's production and dispersal. However, even during the Earth Invasion the Strogg were equally capable of producing stroyent on Earth and could even convert existing human oil refineries into stroyent factories. For this reason it is likely that the Strogg can create Stroyent with or without the use of the stroyent processing creature and the heart, though these systems inevitably made the process a lot faster. Unlike oil, stroyent is a non-combustible fuel and is likely only able to fuel Strogg machinery by being fed into various interconnected biological components. Regardless of this, the Strogg still use combustible fuels also, likely stroyent-derived, since there are explosive red barrels in many Strogg facilities, probably containing gasoline or some similar fuel. Culture Strogg culture is marked only by the excessive fixation on warfare, with all their efforts being geared towards this single purpose. Buildings on Stroggos are nothing more than countless armoured bunkers, weapons factories, defences and massive fortifications. There is no evidence of any previous era in which the Strogg had other forms of architecture, and many of the buildings show signs of extreme age and crude construction, rusting to the core, though they all tend to have the same kinds of elevators and automatic doors that are typical of human military installations. One sign of the Strogg's culture is their use of nationalistic banners and symbols in orange and yellow colouring, hinting that they may once have had a national identity or took some kind of pride in their culture. Many such banners still hang on or inside Strogg installations, though many of them, like the buildings, are weathered, torn, stained and almost ancient in appearance. It is possible the Strogg still make these flags and display them as a holdover from a past age when they were less enslaved by their technology, since otherwise the Strogg would see them as a waste of resources due to their lack of need for morale or military pride compared to humans. Language The Strogg language functions very similarly to English, with various symbols forming seperate words and basically working as letters, as opposed to symbols representing whole meanings in the way that Chinese, for example, works. However, there is little indication that many humans have managed to translate it even after years of war against the Strogg and study of them. Understanding of the Strogg language is gained from a neurocyte being implanted in the cerebral cortex, and few human translators would volunteer for such a procedure. It is not entirely necessary, because Johann Strauss claimed to be one of the few humans fluent in Strogg, without undergoing stroggification. Social structure Strogg society is market by brutality and savagery without parallel. The biggest and strongest Strogg are automatically the ones with higher authority, with the most superior Strogg taking the title of Makron and having absolute power over the Strogg civilisation and society. Larger and more powerful Strogg have little respect for their weaker brethren, with many a light tank killing or trampling a lesser Strogg footsoldier if they got in its way. Unique powerful Strogg function as guardians and act as subordinates to the Makron, such as the Tower Guardian which was tasked with the outer defence of the three security stations surrounding the central Strogg Nexus tower. Science Medical research The Strogg conduct cruel experiments on captured humans. Though most captives are sent to stroggification, there are those who are much more unlucky. They are sent for mortality tests. Various organs will be removed by the Strogg scientists without them having any anesthetic, because the Strogg study the pain of their victims and their body's response. Also they want to ascertain how long a human can last without certain organs. This torture is long and horrific, and drives the victims to insanity and inevitably death. The Strogg have no concept of ethics in their medical research and will do anything to anyone if they think it can help them develop the stroggification process more or advance their own medical capabilities, or enhance their weapons to kill more efficiently. Technology The Strogg possess overwhelmingly superior technology to humans. Possibly their most advanced technology is the use of wormholes to travel massive distances, which they used to bridge their assault on Earth originally. Also the Strogg can utilize a similar technology: teleporters. The teleporters are specially made only to transport Strogg and kill humans that use them, unless they have been stroggified. This may be a security feature where the teleporters recognize Strogg codes or it may be a result of Strogg physiology itself. The teleportation technology has been refined so much that lone Strogg infantry can use it. Also, teleportation spawning grenades are deployed by certain Strogg units such as the Strogg guard dogs or the Makron itself. Weaponry The Strogg have developed a variety of highly advanced weapons, ranging from small energy-based blasters to fully-functional railguns and even the Dark Matter Gun, a devastating weapon firing a deadly orb that consumes smaller enemies and inflicts severe damage on bigger ones. When compared to human weapons research, the Strogg seem to be centuries ahead and should be easily winning the war if it was not for the limited spread of many of these weapons. In the following, there's a short overview of common Strogg weapons. *Blaster: an energy-based weapon with relatively low damage but a high rate of fire. Most commonly encountered in Guards. However, bigger versions of this weapon can also be found in larger units such as the Gladiator, and even the Makron himself. *Machine Gun: Classical kinetic weapon that fires large amounts of bullets at a high rate of fire. Strogg units featuring this weapon include Guards, Sentries and Grunts. Also, Tactical Strogg units often wield captured SMC Machine Guns. *Shotgun: Fires a load of pellets at the target. This weapon is only used by some Guards, Tacticals, and Failed Transfers that use captured SMC Shotguns. *Nailgun: Basically working like a Machine Gun, but firing nails that travel slower, yet cause more damage. In the Strogg military, atleast two versions of it exist: the first one is a built-in variant and the main weapon of Gunners in Quake 4, as well as Harvester, while the second one is handheld (see Nailgun for details). It should be noted that the handheld version is capable of firing homing nails (after an upgrade). *Grenade Launcher: Fires a small grenade in a ballistic arc. There seem to be at least two different types of grenades, one being the "standard" explosive grenades (fired by Gunners) and Dark Matter grenades which are only seen during the second fight against the Makron. The standard grenade launcher of the Gunner seems to have inspired the SMC weapon of the same name. *Lightning weaponry: Fires bolts of damaging light and comes in two forms. Firstly, there's the lightning weapon of the Berserker. Apparently, it is integrated into its right weapons arm and can either fire a lightning bolt or be used to create a shockwave that hurts all nearby enemies. Also, there is a handheld version that shoots a bolt at enemies. After an upgrade, the bolt is capable of jumping over on enemies standing nearby one's target. *Rockets: Rockets are mainly used by very strong Strogg units such as the Heavy Hover Tank, the Harvester or Stream Protector, but also by Iron Maidens. All of these rockets possess homing ability. A handheld version, the Rocket Launcher can be obtained at the Strogg Medical Facilities. *Railgun: Fires a large slug of metal at extreme velocity through magnetic coils, causing very high damage. The only known Strogg units using it are the Gladiator, who features a large one mounted on its shoulder, and the Tactical Strogg, which use a handheld one. *Dark Matter Gun: The most powerful weapon of Quake 4. This weapons fires a ball of Dark Matter that causes disastrous damage to any enemy. This weapon is fairly experimental and rare, with the only known Strogg to wield one being the second Makron and the stroggified Lt. Voss. Also, the player can obtain a working handheld prototype during the events of Quake 4. *Incendiary: Another rare weapon system, used by Light Tanks and Stream Protector. It comes in two types: A Flamethrower, and an explosive fireball. Other Technology Another example of the Strogg's advanced technology is the Nexus itself and the associated hardware i.e. in the networking towers that surround it. Albeit advanced, the Strogg technology has many similarities to human technology. Both races' computer systems are very similar hinting that they were developed in a similar way. Johan Strauss, a brilliant engineer in Rhino Squad during the human invasion of Stroggos, said that the Strogg Communication Network could not be hacked easily, but it would be possible with the proper equipment. The Strogg were able to take power from human torsos and used many biological systems wired directly into their facilities, such as the giant heart which pumped stroyent across their world. They were able to power whole facilities using torsos, many of which were headless and regulated by a neural link that kept their body functions going. Others still had heads but showed signs of extreme intoxication. The Strogg's combination of biological and mechanical systems is a defining characteristic about their technology since it is how their own bodies work. Warfare Command structure Makron The Makron acts as the leader of all Strogg forces, but primarily it is a machine of war in its own right, typically stronger than any other Strogg and sporting the most powerful weapons and shields. It presides over and protects the Nexus Core in Quake 4, and is the only Strogg that has ever laid eyes on it until it is destroyed. While the first Makron was simply the strongest Strogg, which had achieved a position of power through brutality and risen over the other Strogg commanders, the second Makron was constructed by the Strogg in response to the human invasion of Stroggos. Guardians The Strogg build larger creatures to defend important areas, which act as leaders over the Strogg armies presumably, and as subordinates to the Makron. Examples include the guardian creature that was quickly created using the captured body of Lieutenant Scott Voss to turn the tide in a battle that was threatening the Strogg's waste processing facility and stroyent processing operation, or the Tower Guardian, a massive non-humanoid Strogg that could fly using rocket propulsion and was armed with flame missiles. The Nexus The Strogg were directed by a massive communication network maintained by a system called the Nexus. Its central processor was the main weakness of the Strogg since it was an absolute focal point for their commands. Its destruction aimed at the complete collapse of Strogg forces across their homeworld. However, it is hardly conceivable the Nexus could have been in direct communication with the Strogg expeditionary force that attacked Earth, raising the question if the Strogg can actually continue their fight without the Nexus. Tactics The Strogg possessed much greater tactical capabilities than the humans due to the efficiency of their communication network. During their attack on Earth originally, the Strogg initiated a standard planetary conquest program which divided the world's surface into a honeycomb-like grid, hinting that they had done the same to many worlds before and Earth was simply the next on their list. Presumably the strategy they chose was to take over each hexagon individually and harvest all life forms therein. Given that the Strogg presumably had a history of total war it is a wonder that the humans were able to develop their own tactics effective enough to defeat the Strogg in any battle, let alone drive them off-world. Most likely the human victory was owed due to their access to greater resources and control of more of the surface of the planet, allowing them to use attrition against the Strogg invaders' strongholds. Without these factors to help them on Stroggos, things started to look quite grim for the human invasion forces as the war on the enemy homeworld began to consume far to many lives. Losing battle after battle on the Strogg homeworld made the humans realize Strogg tactics were way ahead of them, and so they knew they needed to cut the Strogg off from their commanders, by disabling the Nexus that controlled all of these commands by processing billions of Strogg thoughts. Air force Strogg flyers, the mainstay of their airforce, have engines that are much more efficient than anything possessed by the human forces invading Stroggos. During the human invasion of Stroggos, the Strogg possessed air superiority with the only problem being the massive human assault ships coming through the atmosphere to pound their installations. Flyers persistently harassed human forces on the ground, functioning as dive bombers or fighter-bombers that were particularly deadly to infantry. They were able to manufacture hundreds of them quickly in hangars and launch them almost immediately upon construction, making it a priority for marines to neutralise these airforce facilities as soon as possible to reduce the amount of punishment their infantry were taking on the ground. To make matters worse, the flyers could drop turrets or convoy protection units that instantly deployed, allowing them to erect tough defences instantly. The Strogg also possessed a number of flying infantry units in Quake 2 such as the Icarus, and in Quake 4 they introduced the the sentries and heavy hover tanks. They also had small units called hornets that could fire missiles which particularly harassed armoured units, because they manoeuvred quickly and could hence avoid the heavy weapons of the humans' hover tanks and mechanized infantry walkers. Ground forces The Strogg ground forces attack in massive numbers and sport many different units, each with their own different combat functions. Mechanized walkers In comparison to humans the Strogg prefered not to use small mechanised infantry walkers, because they already had monstrous cybernetic infantry known ironically as "tanks" to perform roles that humans would normally give to their heavily armoured vehicles. The Strogg mechanized walker role is performed by the harvester, a unit developed, as its name suggests, for harvesting. Naturally it is very effective against infantry, and there is no record of any human infantry managing to bring one down. They usually must be taken down by the humans' armoured units such as hover tanks or their own mechanized infantry walkers. Infantry weapons The Strogg have developed a number of powerful infantry weapons, many of them living up to the brutal reputation of the Strogg. Here are some of the different kinds: * Nailgun * Grenade launcher * Railgun * Flame thrower (not accessible to the player) * Lightning gun * Dark matter cannon Strogg military designations The Strogg use a variety of different cybernetic constructs as soldiers. Here are some of the different kinds of combat unit: *Guard *Grunt *Berserker *Gunner *Tactical Strogg *Gladiator *Makron *Heavy Hover Tank *Light Tank *Convoy *Hornet *Turret Category:Background